Chapter Summaries

Shadow asked the Omniscient Mirror why Bai Suoyi had gone mad, paying for the answer with his heart. The mirror revealed that an unexplained voice had weakened Bai Suoyi’s conviction on the Path to Immortality, sowing the seeds of his madness.

• Shadow waited with Lu Xiao for Zhang Chu to return with the Omniscient Mirror, keeping Zhang Chu away from the transformed Bai Suoyi.
• Zhang Chu arrived with the mirror and became interested in Lu Xiao’s ability to make Bai Suoyi fall asleep.
• The Omniscient Mirror demanded Shadow’s heart to answer why Bai Suoyi had gone mad, and Shadow paid the price rather than let Zhang Chu ask.
• The mirror showed Bai Suoyi’s perspective on the Path to Immortality and revealed a voice saying, “Old Bai, there’s no need to be so serious about everything.”
• Shadow confirmed he had not spoken those words, and the mirror explained that hearing them had shaken Bai Suoyi’s conviction and started his madness.

Shadow realized the dead Creator had targeted the group with mental corruption and had planted the seed that drove Bai Suoyi mad. He suspected their discoveries and actions had been orchestrated, and forced himself to stop thinking before he, too, lost his sanity.

• Shadow deduced that the Creator's scheme was connected to Zhang Chu and the authority Zhang Chu had inherited.
• Lu Xiao noticed Shadow's bloodshot eyes and asked whether he was going mad, but Shadow insisted he was still in control.
• Shadow realized the Creator had tried to corrupt him with murmuring before shifting its attention to Bai Suoyi and Chainsaw Man.
• Shadow concluded that the Creator had planted a seed of madness in Bai Suoyi and later brought it to fruition through hallucinations.
• Shadow traced their chance to stop Bai Suoyi's madness to a string of precisely timed events and feared they were being controlled like puppets.
• Shadow realized that dwelling on the apparent orchestration could drive him mad, so he cast the thoughts from his mind.

Shadow learned that the Omniscient Mirror believed he had gone mad, but accepted it and resolved to attain godhood while returning to deal with the Prison. At C03 Containment Facility, the Director told Shuns that the Doctor had created a new world in his dreams.

• Shadow suspected that a hidden manipulator had interfered with events to prevent him and others from attaining godhood, but stopped investigating the matter.
• The Omniscient Mirror warned Shadow that a great existence said he had already gone mad, then became a pendant that Lu Xiao put around his neck.
• Shadow accepted the possibility that he had gone mad, decided to attain godhood, and urged Lu Xiao to return with him to deal with the Prison.
• At C03 Containment Facility, the Driver struggled to understand a stack of mechanical design drawings that the Director said had been simplified for him.
• Shuns asked the Director about the Doctor's treatment, and the Director said the Doctor had created a new world in his dreams.

Shuns met with Antie, who reported that Prison had fallen and urged him to take refuge. Antie revealed that the Spark Plan should now be activated and asked Shuns to lead it.

• Shuns persuaded the Director to accompany him to meet Antie, while He Shang arrived and recognized Driver’s blueprints as an advanced transmission system.
• Driver asked He Shang to help with an idea after learning that the blueprints showed the Transforming Vehicle’s combat form.
• Antie told Shuns that Shadow had reported Prison’s fall and offered to take him somewhere safe.
• The Director questioned how Antie knew about the fall, and Antie hinted that he knew the System Core had returned to C03.
• Shuns demanded a reason for calling it refuge, and Antie said the Prison Plan’s supplementary provisions required the Spark Plan to begin, with Shuns leading it.

Shuns refused to return to A01 and challenged Antie’s plan to preserve humanity by creating another cycle of civilization. Antie admitted that he had felt despair as a Pioneer, and Shuns insisted that Mr. Lu gave them another choice.

• Shuns refused to oversee the Spark Plan or return to A01, and the Director backed his decision to stay at C02.
• Antie urged Shuns to accept protection because his knowledge was vital to humanity, but Shuns asked whether Antie would turn his brain into a system like Doctor Li’s.
• Shuns apologized for speaking harshly and questioned whether Antie’s Gods Plan would merely restart the cycle of civilization and mass extinction.
• Antie remembered the despair he had experienced as a Pioneer and asked whether they had any other choice.
• Shuns declared that they did have a choice because they had Mr. Lu.

Shuns revealed that Mr. Lu was the Sequence Origin and proposed establishing a public Containment Facility, C04, in Huaxia to gather resources and prepare for the Gate’s failure. Antie and the Director raced to set the plan in motion, ending with a bet over which side would lead the new base.

• Shuns told Antie that Mr. Lu was the Sequence Origin, and Antie understood the significance of the revelation.
• Shuns and Antie agreed to keep the Spark Plan as a fallback while preparing for the Gate to fail in less than a month.
• Shuns proposed that the Highest Office announce the creation of C04 in Huaxia, a public Containment Facility that would concentrate Prison Wardens’ resources and attract elite Researchers.
• Antie promised to secure the notice in one day, and the Director claimed his side could build the base within ten days.
• Antie challenged the Director to bet that the C-prefixed side would lead the base if it was built within ten days; otherwise, the A-prefixed side would lead it.

Antie and the Director formalized a wager with the Warden’s approval, while Antie requested that the system’s main body be placed in the future C04 Base. He then went to the Highest Office without an appointment and used his power to immobilize the guards at its entrance.

• The Director called the Warden, who approved Antie’s wager and arranged for a signed document with Shuns and the Warden as guarantors.
• Jailer delivered the document from the C01 Containment Facility, and Antie, Shuns, and the Director signed it.
• Antie asked the Director to place the system’s main body in the future C04 Base, and the Director agreed.
• Antie left C03, flew to the Highest Office in Northern Europe, and arrived less than half a day later.
• When an A01 soldier refused to let Antie enter without an appointment, Antie snapped his fingers and immobilized the soldiers.

Antie entered the Highest Office's Shelter Room and proposed something to its members, who challenged his right to bypass their procedures. He revealed that he knew the Warden Regulations because he had written them, leaving his proposal's content unstated.

• Antie walked through the Prison Warden soldiers and headed upstairs as they sounded the alarm and prepared to shoot him.
• Antie let bullets pass through his liquid body, then blinded the soldiers guarding the elevator by affecting the aqueous humor in their eyes.
• Antie entered the Highest Office's Shelter Room through a ventilation opening and told the office members he had a small proposal.
• When one member objected that Antie was challenging the Highest Office's authority, Antie agreed that his behavior had disgraced the office.
• The member cited the Warden Regulations and explained the approval process, and Antie replied that he knew the rules because he had written them.

Antie forced the Highest Office to accept his proposal by killing a member who challenged him, and the Office ordered containment facilities to send researchers and anomalies to Huaxia for the Prison Warden’s new public facility. The Director showed Shuns detailed facility designs, leaving him astonished that they had been completed in half a day without using the system.

• Antie warned the Highest Office members that he had less than an hour, then killed a member who threatened A01 and demanded that they consider his proposal.
• The Highest Office issued an order for containment facilities to send researchers and assigned anomalies to Huaxia for the Prison Warden’s public containment facility.
• Containment facilities began preparing their anomalies and armed escorts, eager to join the joint research.
• The Director noted that Antie had kept his half-day promise, while Shuns reminded him that he still had to keep his own.
• The Director handed Shuns two detailed facility designs in Chinese and Chinese sci-fi styles, explaining that they had been completed just before the notice arrived.
• Shuns questioned whether the designs had used the system, but the Director said they had taken only half a day to make.

Shuns and the Director prepared a southern-coast Containment Facility and discussed the Doctor’s dream-created world as humanity faced the approaching threat from the Dark Prison. They questioned Black Cat about how the Doctor took control of the Dreamscape, and Black Cat began explaining that he had first perfected it.

• Shuns agreed that a new Containment Facility should be built on the southern coast, where C02 could not adequately defend the area.
• Shuns suggested that the Doctor might be transforming into a Creator, and he told the Director to discuss the matter with Shadow when he returned.
• Shuns said his spherical device would soon be ready, while the Director confirmed that five test subjects implanted with the Thought Imprint were prepared for experimentation.
• Shuns and the Director visited the sleeping Doctor, and the Director noted that the Doctor had apparently left the Dreamscape but had not awakened.
• Black Cat told Shuns that the Doctor had taken control of the Dreamscape after thinking in a barren void, then clarified that he had first perfected the Dreamscape rather than immediately creating a New World.

Shuns and the Director decided to wait for Shadow’s return before entering the Doctor’s Dreamscape, while Shadow, Lu Xiao, the Prison Doctor, and Zhang Chu reached Dart’s seawall. Shadow reported that the beings from the Depths had escaped, and Dart vowed to defend C03.

• Shuns and the Director discussed entering the Doctor’s Dreamscape but agreed to wait for Shadow and more news about Mr. Lu.
• Zhang Chu sensed demonic aura near the coast, but Shadow warned him not to provoke Dart.
• Lu Xiao argued with the Prison Doctor that illness could be cured by cutting away the affected body part, demonstrating his healing ability by tearing off and reattaching his arm.
• Shadow told Lu Xiao that he was not suited to medicine, but Lu Xiao concluded he had merely forgotten to administer anesthesia first.
• Shadow told Dart that the beings from the Depths had escaped and would need time to recover, then said he needed to take Lu Xiao back to defend C01.
• Dart accepted Shadow’s report and declared that C03 would not fall unless Dart died.

Dart struggled against the pollution growing inside him after Lu Xiao forgot him, but Lu Xiao returned to deliver a message that someone would remember what he had done. Shadow led the group out of the Dark Prison, and they emerged in D107-Clay Statue’s Containment Room, where the statue twisted Lu Xiao’s head around.

• Zhang Chu mistook Dart for a fiend, and Shadow left with Zhang Chu on the Flesh Cloud.
• Dart fought off a surge of madness caused by the loss of the Source of Pollution and the pollution accumulated in the Dark Prison.
• Lu Xiao returned and used the Omniscient Mirror to tell Dart that someone would remember what he had done.
• Shadow broke open a hole between the Dark Prison and the present world, and the group passed through it.
• The group arrived in D107-Clay Statue’s Containment Room, where the clay statue twisted Lu Xiao’s head 180 degrees.

Shadow and the others entered Doctor’s dream to investigate the world he had created and search for answers. There, Doctor appeared lucid, gave Lu Xiao a Monocle, and revealed he had regained his lucidity shortly after entering the dream.

• Shadow told Zhang Chu that the rule-based Weird Life entity could only be handled by following its rules, then contacted the Director and asked him to bring Shuns.
• Lu Xiao told Shadow he felt familiar with Shuns and close to the Director, and Shadow suggested they might have been his friends before he lost his memory.
• Shadow asked about Bai Suoyi and arranged to enter Doctor’s dream with the Director, while Shuns stayed outside to monitor events.
• Black Cat sent Shadow, Lu Xiao, Zhang Chu, and the Director into Doctor’s dream, where they encountered Doctor in a bright, unfamiliar room.
• Doctor gave Lu Xiao a Monocle and told Shadow he had regained his lucidity three hours and seventeen minutes after entering the dream, then snapped his fingers and distorted the scene.

The Doctor revealed that he had mastered the dreamscape, built an artificial world, and created living beings there. When Shadow confronted him, the Doctor said he would return to their world but had never intended to take his creations with him.

• The Doctor used a wormhole to lead Shadow, the Director, Chainsaw Man, and Bai Suoyi into a factory inside the dreamscape.
• The Doctor explained that he had completed the dreamscape’s laws of physics, compiled Lu Xi as the System Core, and built the factory.
• The group saw Nutrient Tanks containing copies of themselves, and the Doctor awakened them, including a second Lu Xiao.
• The Doctor revealed that the assembly line produced living beings, prompting Shadow and the others to oppose him while his creations gathered behind him.
• Shadow asked whether the Doctor planned to remain in the dreamscape, and the Doctor said he would return to their world but had never planned to take his creations there.

Doctor explained that he created a world to investigate whether their own reality was controlled from outside, and described experiments using it to study madness. He revealed that transferring madness to identical copies could only delay its effects, while creating a second identical person caused his world to collapse.

• Doctor told Shadow that he had created the world after wondering whether their reality was like a fish tank watched by beings outside it.
• Doctor said he had spent thirty thousand years thinking while time flowed slowly in his world.
• Doctor showed the group an experiment in which he transferred madness to a human, causing the person to go mad.
• Doctor explained that an identical person could withstand only a small fraction of his emotions, and that his test subject eventually went mad after about twenty years.
• Doctor told Shadow that making a hundred thousand identical people was impossible because creating a second identical person made the world begin to collapse.

The Doctor showed Shadow and the others a simulated experiment in which shared beliefs and outside contamination drove a group of people to sacrifice themselves, explaining that he had prepared a real experiment using Bai Suoyi. Bai Suoyi woke as the ritual played out, while Shadow was left troubled by doubts about what he had done for civilization's survival.

• The Doctor explained that he viewed madness as the world's error-correction phenomenon and presented a miniature planetary projection as an experimental model.
• The Doctor showed a group of young people with shared experiences and beliefs sacrificing themselves before a statue resembling Bai Suoyi, prompting Shadow to accuse him of acting like an evil god.
• The Doctor said the sacrifice was a virtual trial simulating what happened when the group received contamination from outside the fish tank, and explained that their ritual expressed emotions spreading from the statue.
• The Doctor placed Bai Suoyi's hand over the projection, causing the group to become fanatical, stab themselves, and kiss the statue as Bai Suoyi woke.
• Lu Xiao told Bai Suoyi that he had nearly swallowed his head, while Shadow felt relieved by the simulated trial but began to doubt his past actions.

Shadow explained that Lu Xiao was the key to understanding how the Present World became real, but Lu Xiao had lost the memories he traded to restore Doctor Shuns's memories. Doctor recreated the dreamscape to search for answers, and Shadow began recounting Doctor Li's creation of several Creators during the Calamity Era.

• The people in the Light Curtain burst apart, and Doctor rewound time to return Bai Suoyi to deep sleep.
• Doctor questioned Shadow about the Present World and told Lu Xiao he was the key to understanding its existence.
• Shadow began to lose control, so Doctor injected him with a large dose of sedative to suppress his madness.
• Shadow told Lu Xiao that his lost memories might hold answers and recalled that he had traded them to restore Doctor Shuns's memories.
• Doctor offered to recreate the dreamscape from Shadow's account, and Shadow agreed to reveal what he knew.
• Shadow began explaining that Doctor Li had created several Creators during the Calamity Era and divided their authority.

Shadow explained how the Present World was created, how the Spark and Prison Plans began, and what the Dark Prison’s inhabitants were. He admitted that the world’s established existence remained unexplained and that Doctor Shuns had not revealed what he knew about Lu Xiao.

• Shadow said Doctor Li destroyed a Creator’s Authority over time before the Creators made the Present World, and that he led a Vanguard including Bai Suoyi, Antie, and Gambler to develop it.
• Shadow explained that the old world launched the Spark Plan to populate the new world and the Prison Plan to cut its connections to the old world, but the system rejected the order and led them to the Gate.
• Shadow said the new world’s history concealed the Calamity Era and that most Dark Prison creatures were humans from the old era, while only a few were true Outsiders or defective Apotheosis Seeds.
• Lu Xiao asked whether he was connected to these events, and Shadow said Doctor Shuns had recovered memories about him but refused to share them; Shadow also admitted he had followed Lu Xiao into the Depths to seek the truth.
• Lu Xiao urged Shadow to share his burden, and Shadow said he did not know why the world’s existence had become an established fact or whether Doctor Shuns knew the reason.

Doctor investigated the Dreamscape Shadow described and deduced that a broken sword had injured Zhang Chu’s brain, causing his memory problems. He confirmed the damage in the model and told Shadow to take Zhang Chu to the Prison Doctor for treatment.

• Doctor used the system’s computing power to model the Dreamscape based on Shadow’s account.
• Zhang Chu’s conversation with Lu Xiao prompted Doctor to connect Zhang Chu’s forgetfulness to the time of the Dreamscape incident.
• Doctor deduced that Doctor Li had left part of the broken sword embedded in Zhang Chu’s brain to avoid further damage when removing it.
• Despite Zhang Chu’s protests, Doctor restrained him and cut open his temple in the model, confirming that his brain had been damaged or cursed.
• Doctor told Shadow that treatment in the Dreamscape would not affect Zhang Chu’s physical body and advised him to take Zhang Chu to the Prison Doctor.

Doctor kept Shadow and Bai Suoyi in the Dreamscape while the Director, Lu Xiao, Chainsaw Man, and Zhang Chu returned to find Prison Doctor. Prison Doctor tricked Zhang Chu into drinking concentrated anesthetic before surgery, then prepared to operate as a flash of madness showed in his eyes.

• Doctor sent the Director, Lu Xiao, Chainsaw Man, and Zhang Chu out of the Dreamscape, leaving Shadow and the sleeping Bai Suoyi with him.
• The Director woke and led the others to find Prison Doctor, while Zhang Chu joked that Prison Doctor was a Transformation Stage Crow Spirit.
• The Director told Prison Doctor that Zhang Chu had a problem with his brain and needed treatment.
• Prison Doctor gave Zhang Chu a bottle labeled Home-Brewed Rice Wine, which was actually highly concentrated anesthetic.
• Zhang Chu drank the bottle, lost consciousness, and collapsed onto the Operating Table.
• Prison Doctor prepared his Surgical Knife for the operation, and a flash of madness appeared in his eyes.